We document, support, and promote cases and stories of those sentenced to death who may be innocent of capital murder.
We document the impact of harsh sentences on innocent families.
We promote new policies to help reduce crime  and the number of future victims.

Who we are

LPJ/SAVE is a French association under the 1901. It results from the merging of two associations:
One the one hand, LPJ originally founded by Colette Berthes in1999; and on the other SAVE (founded by Emmanuelle Purdon) which launched the SAVE Innocents campaign in January 2014, aiming at monitoring about 100 claims of innocence on death row in the USA and providing support where possible.

LPJ was originally founded by Colette Berthes in1999 in the context of an international campaign for Odell Barnes in Texas.
Odell Barnes was the first American Prisoner to receive political support from a French President, due to the serious doubts on his guilt.
He was nevertheless executed, but asked that the association continues to help defense the case of other indigent prisoners on death row.
For 20 years, LPJ helped about 30 prisoners through the years to get justice.

LPJ/SAVE help those on death row in the USA who are fighting for their lives.
We can help finance under some conditions DNA tests, psychiatric assessments, or investigations to support the legal defense of prisoners on death row. We also can provide campaigning support to the development of different actions such as clemency petition.


What we  do

Currently, we monitor and/or support over 100 prisoners on death row, predominently in the USA.
As of October 5, 2017, nearly 20% of the innocence cases we monitor (or support) since the creation of the SAVE Innocents  campaign (January 2014) have been either exonerated, benefited from clemency, had their death sentence overturned, or benefited from an execution stay.

In that process, we also:
- document the impact of harsh sentences such as the death penalty on the families of the prisoners.
-  use the unique testimonies of some of the prisoners we know, and those of other parties,  to promote alternative policies  to reduce crime and the number of future innocent victims.  In particular we want to show that by focusing on crime prevention and prisoners rehabilitation at the earliest stage of their graduation in the cycle of violence, some innovative programs allow prisoners to reduce significantly the risk of their re-offending. 

Find out more about the launch of our new Emergency Fund here or  contact us for any further information. Thank you.